‘Winning the lottery hasn’t changed us’

David and Yvonne Brown and their daughters Becky and Julie from Eastwood, are celebarting wining �1m on the lottery one year ago. Picture: Chris Etchells

Published:17:51Wednesday 18 October 2017

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The Brown family from Eastwood won the lottery exactly a year ago.

But despite being £1 million richer, they still live in their terraced house, and say their lives haven’t changed.

David – whose daughter has so far only splashed out on a new toilet seat – said: “We are a typical Eastwood family.

“We are not used to having all this money.

“We always used to watch the lottery on tele and say what we would buy if we won it, and we haven’t bought any of it!”

“We’ve never been ones for great displays of wealth because we’ve never had it. We don’t want to rub people’s face in it either. Why would we?”

“Life has been pretty much as normal,” he said.

David, his wife Yvonne and their two daughters Julie and Rebecca split the money between them and bought a holiday retreat in Lincolnshire, where they go most weekends.

David treated himself to his dream car, an Aston Martin – but just for six months.

“I got rid of it after six months because it wasn’t really practical.

“Eastwood’s not really the place for an Aston Martin, and I’m getting on a bit now.

“It was nice to be able to let people have a ride in it. I took a few kids to school in it,” he said.

David, 62, said one of his daughter’s bought herself a Corsa, and the other bought herself a new toilet seat.

“My daughter Julie who lives with us had a new car, but she was due to change it anyway, and my eldest daughter, Rebecca, became a bit of a financial wizard and worked out that it was better to earn interest on the money in the bank than it was to pay off her mortgage.

“When we found out we won, she said she wanted a new toilet seat so she bought herself that!”

The Browns won £1m in a special National Lottery Olympic draw on August 27 last year.

On top of the usual Lotto draw, an extra 27 prizes of £1 million were available to match the number of Gold medals Team GB won at the Olympiucs in Rio.

David said realising he had won nearly killed him.

“I scanned the ticket on my iPad on a Sunday night when everyone was in bed. I was wearing a fitbit and my heart rate went from 64 to 118! I could see my hands shaking – it was just surreal.

“My daughter thought I was having a heart attack. She said I was a funny colour and I couldn’t talk.”

But he said overall winning the lottery had made his family more relaxed.

“It has changed our life styles, but not changed us as people and that’s what I would want.

“Nowadays we tend to be more relaxed about things. We don’t have the financial pressure now. It’s taken everything like that away from us. And to a lot of people, that’s a lot of pressure.

“We used to have to save for our holidays and things we wanted like most poeple, and it’s taken that pressure away.”

To celebrate the one year anniversary since they won the family hosted a street party.

“Every year all the neighbours have a little get together in someones garage. Normally we all get a take away and put a fiver in but this year we put on sandwiches and cakes to say thank you to everybody for helping keep us grounded,” said David.

The Browns have lived in their current property for 40 years.

David said they have been looking for a bungalow for the last five years, but it will not be anything fancy.

“It’s finding the right one in the right place. We don’t want a big one though.

“Why would you want to rattle around in a huge bungalow?

“The way I look at it the more rooms there are, the more rooms my wife has to clean and I have to decorate!”

The family have played the Lottery together since it began in 1994.

They have the same numbers every Saturday night and have previously won small amounts, which they saved up and spent on a meal out at the end of the year.